By Dr. Nayyer Ali

Letter from Lahore

April 27, 2007

It has been over twenty years since I visited Pakistan, so it was a long overdue journey to take the family back for a visit. Having spent 17 days traveling through Punjab and Kashmir, I thought it would be fitting to give my impression of the country.
Clearly, there has been a tremendous amount of change over the last twenty years. The two things that stand out are the traffic and the population. The number of people has almost doubled in the last twenty years, and Lahore has grown much larger. The road traffic is also much heavier, and there are few animals on the roads now, almost everything is motorized. The rickshaws are still spewing pollution into the streets, except in Islamabad, where they are banned.
There are strong signs of the economic boom that is happening in the country. I saw many families of modest means getting around on motorcycles. The gas stations are quite modern looking and well run. There is a very real boom in phone services, and stiff competition between the mobile phone companies.
In Islamabad, a huge new residential and office complex is being put up by Arab investors. In Mirpur, a Malaysian company is building a new 1000 luxury home tract around the new lakeshore of Mangla Reservoir. The Mangla Dam height is being raised. Everywhere we went there was road construction, and the new motorway between Lahore and Islamabad was first class. Around Lahore a new ring road is under construction, and air travelers are enjoying the new airport in Lahore, which will soon be matched by a new facility in Islamabad.
Brick kilns were quite common and very active, supplying building materials to the people. The farmlands of Punjab looked well kept and lush. And the people in general seemed industrious. Unlike twenty years ago, I did not encounter hordes of able-bodied beggars. The beggars this time were uniformly disabled people or extremely elderly.
The other major change is the vast presence of private schools. Everywhere I turned there seemed to be a private school taking in students. This perhaps reflects a failing of the government to provide decent public education, but it is better than no schooling at all, and reflects the hunger many Pakistanis have to see their children educated.
In Lahore and Islamabad these days there are McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, bringing American tastes to the locals. However, as my children found to their disappointment, the fast food has a Pakistani twist to it, with spiced chicken at KFC and pizza that differs from the US version. McDonald’s was closest to the American product. Although Pakistan has seen some real economic development, it is telling that going to McDonald’s is still a treat for the elite, and far too expensive for the average person.
The billboards were rather interesting. In the billboards, Pakistanis were all comfortably well off, well fed, and rather pale in complexion. This idealized version of Pakistan was at odds with the world on the street.
Politically, it seemed there was little or no enthusiasm for anything on the horizon. While Musharraf and the military were not favored by many I came across, there was also no enthusiasm for the PPP or PML. On the other hand, there was clearly no support for the MMA in Punjab, and fears of the MMA taking over Pakistan I think are way overblown. In general, it seemed that most Pakistanis wanted to get on with their lives, and did not believe that any government was going to help solve their problems.

 

 

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